The impact of locomotion on the brain evolution of squirrels and close relatives

Abstract

Bertrand and colleagues use virtual endocasts from a variety of living and extinct rodent species to assess the effect of locomotion, body mass and phylogeny on the size of the brain and three of its components. Their findings indicate that arboreal and fossorial locomotor types correlate with differential expansion of the neocortex, petrosal lobules, and relative brain size.